1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the telecommunications field, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for use in a telecommunications network for playing an announcement to a calling party.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditionally, the home telephone has facilitated communications between friends and family. However, many calls received during the evening are from organizations seeking to sell products or collect donations. Because these calls are solicitous and usually unwelcome, there is a great demand for subscriber features which enable telephone customers to curtail the ability of outside organizations to invade their privacy at home. Exemplary and commonly known subscriber features which have been developed to help the consumer include Caller ID, Anonymous Call Rejection, Specified Call Blocking and Do Not Disturb. In general, these features either provide information to the called party about an incoming call or operate to reject a call for a specified reason.
There are countless reasons why a person might want to stop or at least reduce the number of calls received at a certain time. For instance, some people dislike answering calls from telemarketing organizations and organizations that seek charitable contributions. Other people prefer to minimize the number of calls received during a certain time. For example, a person may want to limit unnecessary calls during supper, during a television show or sporting event, or while taking a nap. In each of these situations, there is a desire to reduce the number of calls received at a certain time. Moreover, a person may not want to activate a subscriber feature such as Do Not Disturb because it would block all calls, and other subscriber features such as select call blocking may not be available. Accordingly, there is a need for a subscriber feature which helps the subscriber satisfy the goal of reducing the number of calls received during a specified time.